Here is what you need to know.
China’s home price gains slow. Home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 12.4% year-over-year in December, a bit slower than November’s 12.6% pace, Reuters reports, citing National Bureau of Statistics data. Prices in Beijing and Shanghai gained 26.5% and 23.5% in 2016.
Euro-area inflation jumps. Consumer prices rose 1.1% in December, up from the 0.6% clip experienced in November as energy (+2.6%) saw the fastest appreciation, data released on Wednesday by Eurostat showed. The euro is weaker by 0.3% at 1.0685 versus the dollar.
UK unemployment keeps falling. Data released by the Office for National Statistics showed 52,000 fewer people were unemployed in December as the unemployment rate held at a 10-year low of 4.8%. The British pound is down 1% at 1.2294 against the dollar.
FTC alleges that Qualcomm paid Apple billions of dollars in rebates to use its chips. The Federal Trade Commission said a deal between Apple and Qualcomm included “substantial incentive payments” on the condition that Apple would continue using Qualcomm’s baseband processors “exclusively” in all iPhone and iPad models from 2011 and 2012.
United Continental's Q4 profit tumbles. The airline announced fourth-quarter earnings of $1.78 a share on revenue of $9.1 billion but said its profit fell 51.8% to $397 million because of its huge tax bill.
Ford's CEO shares his vision of the future. "Our view is that the industry offerings, 15 years from now, is that there are going to be more electrified offerings than there are internal combustion engines," Ford CEO Mark Fields told Business Insider.
Stock markets around the world trade mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+1.1%) paced the gains in Asia, and France's CAC (-0.4%) lags in Europe. The S&P 500 is on track to open higher by 0.3% near 2,270.
Janet Yellen speaks. Fed Chair Janet Yellen will be at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, speaking on "The Goals of Monetary Policy and How We Pursue Them." The speech begins at 3 p.m. ET.
Earnings reports flow. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup report ahead of the opening bell, while Netflix releases its quarterly results after markets close.
US economic data is moderate. CPI will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET before industrial production and the NAHB Housing Market Index cross the wires at 9:15 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is higher by 4 basis points at 2.36%.